Category Archives: Political Insiders

Pat Caddell, Doug Schoen, and John LeBoutillier joined Harris Faulkner on Fox News’ Political Insiders, Sunday evening, to talk about the controversial Bergdahl swap.

Faulkner asked the group if the story was evolving in a way that was favorable to the Regime.

Schoen answered, “I’m seeing more and more questions being asked. For example, was money paid to the Haqqani network? …How much restrictions are on the five detainees released in Qatar?”

He also questioned John Kerry’s strange comment Sunday, that suggested we have the ability to drone these militants once they’re back on the battlefield. “We need to find out what he was talking about – and what he meant,” Schoen noted.

Harris wondered if any other administration would have done differently.

LeBoutillier said, “maybe, but as time goes on, you can’t believe anything anybody in this administration says about it.”

He made the point that the administration – Hagel specifically – have denied that any of Bergdahl’s troop mates died while looking for him.” Faulkner played a clip of Hagel weakly trying to make that assertion.

“We’ve seen the parents of dead soldiers who died (were killed) looking for Bergdahl on the TV shows this past week, complaining about this thing,” LeBoutillier exclaimed.

Caddell said, “I think the poll numbers are changing to their detriment.”

“we have these five Taliban top commanders one of whom engaged in genocide, living in luxury. I want to know how many Americans died to capture those Taliban,” (that were just set free) Caddell thundered.

In 2011, and 2012, “everyone refused to make this trade,” Caddell noted. “It was a White House operation. They wanted the VA off the front page – they got something much worse.”

Schoen added, “the deal itself was very very problematic, but as John suggested, I think the credibility of this administration in terms of its overall foreign policy – what they say and what they do are completely at variance, and we saw this week an absence of coherence between the US and the Europeans. Ultimately, this is a president losing credibility, and losing stature.”

LeBoutillier repeated the conventional wisdom that the swap was made to get the VA scandal off the front pages, but they botched the rollout of the news horribly, starting with the Rose Garden announcement with Mr. and Mrs. Bergdahl.

“Can you imagine!” he exclaimed, “having the father of this prisoner standing with the president tweeting with the Taliban leadership, promising to work to get all of the prisoners out of Guantanamo – he’s standing with the Commander in Chief whose soldiers are getting killed by the Taliban! How can this be?!”

Caddell piped up, “let’s talk about incompetence for a moment”, referring to the Rose garden presser with the family. “That moment may go down in history as a “jump the shark moment” for the administration. All of a sudden, everything it says and does is exposed. It goes to far!”

In an aside, Caddell also slammed the president for “standing there tie-less.”

They’ve had a whole office of people dealing with the “eccentric ” Bergdahls for years – “no one said to the president – they seem to come off as a little eccentric, maybe we shouldn’t have this going on – maybe there are going to be some problems?I know from my experience, you would try to do that,” Caddell explained.

The easy answer is – Obama’s White House is filled with youthful liberal hipsters and ideologues who don’t find anything eccentric about the Bergdahls and cluck their tongues at us for “judging” the elder Bergdahl for his questionable appearance and behavior.

Caddell calls them “a team of clowns who took over from a very qualified team in foreign policy.” The Obami call it “smart power.”

Like this:

The Select Committee to investigate Benghazi is “fraught with political peril”, Fox News’ Political Insiders, Pat Caddell, Doug Schoen, and a very hoarse John LeBoutillier made clear on Sunday evenings show with host Harris Faulkner.

If the committee ends up looking political it will be a victory for Democrats. That’s why Democrats are trying so hard to paint it as such, and the stupid party isn’t helping by already trying to fund-raise off of it.

As of Sunday evening, there was no word from the RNC, that the fund-raising was going to stop, Pat Caddell lamented. Inexcusable.

While it’s of course true that Democrats can fund-raise off of anything they want and not get called out on it by the MSM – Republicans are held to a higher standard, and they should be aware of the bad optics, here. No one ever said politics in America is fair.

Trey Gowdy has made clear interview after interview that he wants a fair investigation.

Pat Caddell said, “what is disturbing most of all – I say this as a Democrat – is why no one in my party has felt as some Republicans at least did during Watergate – that we deserve to know the truth of what happened. I have heard more outrageous spin and lies about how there’s nothing to know, or whatever for the purpose of politics —when it involves American Security, a dead Ambassador and dead Americans. It is outrageous about our political system.”

The hottest topic right now is of course was Benghazi, and House Speaker Boehner’s decision to establish a joint committee. Faulkner asked the panel to respond to the latest on the scandal which includes a revelation made by Obama’s Chief Water-Carrier in the House, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) during an interview on Fox News Sunday. Schiff suggested that Democrats should boycott the Select Committee. The Senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, has a disgraceful record of partisan hackery on scandals that could hurt the president. Instead of cooperating with Republicans during their investigations of Benghazi and Fast in Furious in their search for the truth, Schiff has seen his role as a partisan defender, protecting a Fellow Dem in the White House.

In November of 2012, Schiff maintained that the changes to Benghazi talking points were made by intel community, and that was that. We were supposed to accept it and “move on.” He told Fox News the changes in the talking points were driven by security considerations, not politics – a notion that still fails the laugh test all these months later.

Pat Caddell told Faulkner, “I have been advocating since day one that they should have a Select Committee because it was the only way to get consistent questioning..”

“It’s sad,” he continued. “I look at Adam Schiff ….during Watergate there were Republicans who were willing to stand up to the president and at least get to the truth. This is how bad our politics have become. The truth is – we know we have not been told the truth. We don’t know what the president was doing that night – but he was not in the Situation Room. And we know that the talking points were a fantasy imposed…”

Caddell’s advice to Republicans was to run the Committee not as a political show – but a fact-finding exercise, building the case that tells what really happened that night and what happened afterward.

“If they do that, and the Democrats don’t participate, then the Democrats will be hurt, Caddell said. But he added, “if the Republicans put on a political show, people will say, there you go – that’s what we expect. It behooves them all to act like American leaders and not like a bunch of hacks.”

He called Benghazi, “the biggest cover-up in Washington since Watergate. Bob Woodward and the rest of the press have taken a walk on this to protect the Obama administration. Only Fox has pursued this and a few other outlets.”

Caddell said, “the culprit is clear, it’s National Security Adviser, Tom Donilon…..He is a political hack.“

Back in October of 2010, in what was taken by many at the time to be a signal that the President had no interest in pivoting to the right in the wake of the the mid-term Dem-shellacking, Obama appointed Tom Donilon to be his National Security Adviser, taking the place of the outgoing Marine General Jim Jones.

John, at Powerlineprovided a little background information on the President’s new National Security Adviser:

For a long time, Donilon lived his life from presidential campaign to campaign.

The Democratic operative worked on his first Democratic National Convention at 24, and he’s been helping elect candidates ever since. He has worked for Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Joseph R. Biden. …

He was a registered lobbyist from 1999 through 2005, and his sole client was Fannie Mae. … His brother is Michael C. Donilon, a counselor to Vice President Joseph R. Biden. His wife, Cathy Russell, is Jill Biden’s chief of staff.

Andrew McCarthy reported that Defense Sec. Robert Gates had been quoted as saying that Tom Donilon would be “a disaster” if appointed national security adviser.

According to Bob Woodward’s book, Obama’s Wars Gates described Donilon, as clueless when it comes to the military and was deeply offended by the disrespect the former Fannie Mae lobbyist showed to senior military leadership.

The RNC has a profile on the Dem political operative (aka “Democrat Fixer”) who is now Obama’s Natl Security Adviser,here.

You really must listen to Caddell rail against the guy. Several times during the interview, Bannon cautioned Caddell to moderate his tone – he was sounding so harsh….

But Caddell stuck to his guns, saying, “anyone who knows him knows, Tom Donilon will put being elected and the ambition of thinking that he should be Sec of State…above anything!“

It almost sounds like Caddell is on a vendetta.

Caddell tore into Donilon, again, today – suggesting that he is behind the bogus YouTube video narrative. “Ben Rhodes did not work in a vacuum,” Caddell declared. ” He worked for Tom Donilon, the National Security Advisor – former political hack – who was running the National Security Council. And I’ve said this over and over – he was the person designing and running this.” He said, “that’s the truth we need to get at.”

They spent the remainder of the segment talking about money in politics and the Ukraine.

Like this:

Fox News Political Insiders Pat Caddell, Doug Schoen, John LeBoutillier joined Harris Faulkner Sunday night to talk about the latest on the political grapevine – Jeb Bush’s “New GOP”, SCOTUS, Obama’s April Fools Day ObamaCare Victory speech, and Fox’s special, Enemies of the State.

Most of the show was a rather mundane discussion of the usual stale subjects, but the panel came alive during their discussion about Fox’s special, Enemies of the State.

Caddell said, “the problem we have in this country – someone referred to it as soft authoritarianism – is this is supposed to be a democracy, not a country where if you get out of line, the government can come after you – and the problem is, they can come after you in every possible way. They’re also writing more and more laws, making everything criminal to in fact intimidate and oppress the American people. This is not freedom, folks! He went on to say that “the government is oppressing the people.”

LeBoutillier mentioned the NSA spying as another way the government is violating the rights of the people. He exclaimed, inside the beltway, “it is a corrupt system out to screw us!”

Like this:

On Sunday, Sec. of State John Kerrystated that questions regarding the further federalization of Ukraine was up to Ukrainian citizens, not outside powers, following a meeting in Paris with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov,

Lavrov had stated earlier that Ukraine would not be able to function as a unified state and should push for decentralized governance that provides regions with greater autonomy.

“It is not up to us to make any decision or agreement regarding federalization. It is up to Ukrainians,” said Kerry.

Kerry also went on to condemn the presence of an estimated 40,000 Russian troops currently gathered along the Ukrainian border.

Schoen shared what he called, Shoen’s Law: “Lavrov + Kerry = capitulation. Put simply, Harris, when we talk about the federalization of Ukraine, it is effectively as if we were talking about the break up of a sovereign nation – who are in the midst of a presidential election – this is unbelievable that this is going on, and I must tell you – I’m deeply concerned.”

Caddell agreed, noting that the parallels to Neville chamberlain is frightening. He suggested that what Putin said when he called Obama, was “I’m gonna need Moldavia, I’m gonna need the Balkan states…”

He continued, “this is not going to stop, and his statement, ‘I have no more territorial demands’ – it’s exactly what Adolf Hitler said.” And repeating his refrain from the past few weeks, Caddell declared, “we’re surrendering everything.”

Shoen said, “Putin wants to put the Soviet Union back together, and we’re not stopping him.”

And he continued (using his favorite phrase, “bottom line” twice in one sentence) “Our troop levels are at their lowest levels in the last 40 years, we’re cutting our defense budget, as the Russian and Chinese are increasing their budgets by 10 – 12%. Bottom line – we’re not prepared to fight a war, we’re certainly not prepared to fight on multiple fronts…bottom line, Harris – we’re in trouble.”

In Caddell’s opinion, Obama “appears to be committed to what is essentially unilateral disarmament.”

Around the world and at home, the Insiders noted, polling shows that the United States is seen as weaker today, than before Obama was elected.

Pat Caddell said, Obama is “the first American president I believe who does not particularly think America is an exceptional nation – and acts like it.”

Shoen agreed, “when I travel around the world and talk to people about our administration, people are confused, they’re aghast – and they believe that we are weak and without leadership.”

When the conversation moved to the latest ObamaCare delay, and the Regime’s bogus signup numbers, Caddell said, “look, all of this is basically a refusal to acknowledge that ObamaCare needs to be fixed.”

They talked about the new health care plan than that is being proposed (by Democrats) “to save their skin in the elections”, slamming the Republicans for not putting forward a plan of their own – (even though there are several good proposals out there, including a recent proposal from Senate Republicans.)

Moving on to the Republican presidential candidates, they said, “Chris Christie is in severe political distress” due to bridge-gate and Jeb Bush is profiting off of that because the GOP establishment big money bundlers are now favoring him. (insane, I know.)

“He’s running worse in the polls than anyone,” Caddell noted, “because half the country says under no circumstances will we vote for another Bush.”

Fox News’ Political Insiders, Pat Caddell, Doug Schoen, John LeBoutillier joined Harris Faulkner, Sunday evening to talk about the big news stories, this week – starting with the 4th Anniversary of ObamaCare.

Harris asked the Insiders how they were celebrating the anniversary.

Doug is actually in Arizona, right now –

LeBoutillier compared Obama to LBJ, who was a hands on president – working with both sides to pass contentious legislation – to how Obama passed ObamaCare (excluding Republicans – shoving it down our throats), which is why he says it is unpopular – it’s how it was birthed!

Caddell said he is doing what he always does on the anniversary of ObamaCare: “recite what I said the night it passed; this is a crime against Democracy – the American people will never accept it. Four years later the American people still don’t accept it – and it’s still being pushed down their throats.”

RE the polls that show that ObamaCare is still unpopular: I have to ask. Why did so many of these Americans that don’t accept ObamaCare, vote for Obama in 2012? With God as my witness, I’ll never understand how the man was reelected. When he upheld the hated individual mandate, Justice Roberts put Obamacare in the hands of the American people to decide its fate at the ballot box on November 6, 2012. We all know how that worked out. The voters had it within their power to repeal ObamaCare by rejecting Obama, yet he somehow won with the help of God Knows how many illegal votes.

After the break, they talked about a WSJ story that contends that friends of Hillary Clinton are concerned about her potential White House run.

Schoen and Caddell noted that if the Clintons don’t want their friends to talk – they don’t talk. So the friends are out there talking for a reason.

The Insiders also talked about Obama’s decision to abdicate control of the internet, which former president Clinton recently came out strongly against.